Commentary: Activists, docs at odds over LD

… Last month, they scored a victory in Minnesota. With the help of some sympathetic legislators, activists from the Minnesota Lyme Action Support Group pressured the state Board of Medicine to forgo, for now, the ability to discipline doctors for using the unproven treatment.

Dr. Johan S. Bakken, an infectious-disease expert at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth, calls it “a sad statement when politicians begin to practice medicine without a license.”

The problem, he and others say, is that many patients blame a wide constellation of painful and disabling symptoms – from panic attacks to impotence to memory loss – on what they call “chronic Lyme disease,” without any evidence they were ever infected.

I find it intriguing that licensed doctors take such a strong stance against providing treatment to Lyme patients. Is it threatening their practice? Is it affecting their kickbacks?

The IDSA rigged the deck by insisting that only three strains of LD exist when over 300 strains have been discovered. Naturally, LD testing will be inconclusive and misleading. Then, with the support and financial backing of the insurance companies who don’t want the exorbitant insurance claims, the anti-Lyme advocates insist LD does not exist.

If a treatment helps a patient, why would a medical professional criticize another medical professional’s treatment? This reeks of jealousy, spite and ulterior motives.

Yes, we know that medical professionals are supposed to be the crème-de-la-crème in academic prowess, but do we need to start testing our doctors for maturity and ethics to avoid this pettiness? This would lead to a shortage of qualified doctors. I guess that is where we are anyway.